Attended the Marketing Awards and I now get the difference between us and them. When I say ‘us’ and ‘them’, I mean Halifax and Toronto. Here (I’m sitting in a Starbucks off Queen St. W, TO), they are frightened and paranoid. This manifests itself as cranky and critical.

The show did not get going until 8:40 p.m. in your basic movie theatre on Bloor Street. By that time, the crowd of mostly mid-level creative types and account people were juiced up, boisterous and in no mood to sit still. The French and English co-hosts were a nice touch in representing the bi-cultural make-up of the awards. Marketing tried hard to make the work the hero, but unfortunately the efforts were dedicated to some pre-show installations (small side theaters and static displays) that few of those in attendance paid much attention to.

Like all award shows, I agreed with most of the awards presented and for others I said “What?” But hey that’s the nature of the beast and what one individual thinks is of little importance. For the most part I think the judges did a good job and most of the major markets were well represented. Not surprisingly, agencies from Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver took home the majority of the hardware. Our own Brad Dykema was in attendance with Leslie and I, and I think he was pleased with most of the judging process and results. A big shout out to Angus Tukker and the rest of John St. for the Best Public Service — Integrated. I met with Angus earlier in the day since he is the head judge for this year’s ICE awards. He is looking forward to coming out in September and was surprisingly well informed about what’s going on back East.

Major take away? Although we (back East) did not have our best year (Extreme was the only winner from Atlantic Canada), our work is every bit as good and I can guarantee the ICE awards will be a much better show.

I've been in the marketing game for almost 25 years now and the most valuable thing I've learned is that I have a whole lot more to learn. I started off in sales and worked my way up (so I thought) to advertising. In hind sight, I realize that sales was the top! You can have sales without advertising, but advertising without sales is just useless art. When Trampoline Branding was formed, we set out with that firmly planted in our minds. Now more than ever we need to keep it very simple for consumers. Good thing, I'm a very simple guy!